1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a waste ink receiving cartridge for receiving the waste ink which was not used for recording, or an ink cartridge and an ink recording apparatus with the ink cartridge, containing an ink reservoir and a waste ink receiving member within the cartridge to allow for the supply of ink and the disposal of waste ink with one unit.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, in an ink recording apparatus, a recovery operation or preparatory ink exhaust processing for stabilizing the discharge characteristic prior to its use is performed, because discharge failure may occur due to mixing of bubbles, dirt, meniscus regression on ink discharge ports at a tip of a nozzle in printing with a recording head, causing unclear printing. In such a case, the ink within a nozzle is extruded or conversely sucked, or predischarged irrespective of the recording, with various mechanisms, so that most of the ink can be recovered. Thus, a waste ink reservoir is needed in order to dispose of, or reserve temporarily, the ink that was extruded or sucked, or discharged and exhausted from discharge ports, regardless of the printing. In addition, in a continuance method where the ink is continuously discharged and only the required amount of ink is selectively used to record onto a recording medium, there is provided a waste ink reservoir for temporarily reserving a quantity of discharged ink which was not used for the printing.
The structure of waste ink reservoir is generally made of a high water absorbing member and is contained within a cartridge, so that no ink may leak outside from a supply port for the waste ink reservoir. To this end, an absorbing member for sucking the ink which projects outward from an opening portion of a drainage bottle is well known, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 59-42963 gazette.
For this type of apparatus for using the ink, such as an ink recording apparatus, the waste ink path for directing produced waste ink to the waste ink reservoir is arranged by one on account of structure, cost and so on. Thus, the waste ink, after reaching to a particular fixed position of the water absorbing member, is generally diffused within a absorbing member by the capillary effect, depending on the ink absorbency of the water absorbing member.
In such an ink cartridge, the following problem was resolved by the present inventor. That is, when a time interval from the first waste ink operation to the next waste ink operation is sufficiently long, volatile components of ink may evaporate, so that the ink fixes within the absorbing member. In this way, if the waste ink fixes at a waste ink absorbing inlet portion of the water absorbing member, the capillary power at that portion is weakened, so that when waste ink enters later, it may not be sucked and diffused at a sufficiently high speed, thereby causing an overflow of the waste ink within the cartridge. Further, in taking out the ink cartridge from an ink jet recording apparatus in that state, there often occurs a failure that the ink as above described may leak from an atmosphere communicating port or waste ink receiving port of the ink cartridge, because the ink cartridge is inclined or oscillated.
On the other hand, even if the fixing of ink does not occur, a high viscous waste ink is difficult to reach to the water absorbing member relatively remote from the portion of the waste ink absorbing inlet, thereby causing a problem that the waste ink absorbency in the whole water absorbing member is substantially reduced. And particularly for a cartridge with a construction that the ink is stored in a different chamber from that of the above mentioned ink absorbing member in a space where an ink storage portion containing the ink to be used is partitioned, the reduction of absorbency as described above may render its withdrawal capability almost naught.
Furthermore, in a recording apparatus of a type in which the above mentioned ink storage member is bag-shaped and the ink is supplied in accordance with the consumption of ink, if the ink is stored within the same space as that of the above mentioned waste ink absorbing member, a bag-shaped ink storage member and the ink absorbing member will have made contact with each other. In this case, if the ink absorbing member itself increases its volume in part due to a partial absorption from various causes as above described, problems may occur such that the ink absorbing member presses against the bag-shaped storage member regardless of a deformation in accordance with the consumption of ink, which may yield an excessive supply of ink, and unnecessary ink discharge from the recording apparatus, or conversely, the stable supply of ink will be deteriorated by interfering with the deformation in accordance with the consumption of ink, resulting in a recording failure.